China boat relatives stage protest
NEWS DESK (DİHA) - Relatives of some of the nearly 400 people missing after a cruise ship capsized on China's Yangtze River have staged a protest near the sinking site.
Dozens of people broke through police cordons at the river in Jianli, Hubei province, demanding more information. State media say 65 people are now confirmed to have died when the Eastern Star overturned in a storm on Monday. Rescue workers battling heavy rain have cut into the hull of the upturned vessel so divers can search inside. But no-one has been pulled out alive since Tuesday's dramatic rescues.
Only 14 of the 456 passengers are known to have escaped. The official death toll leapt on Thursday morning after divers retrieved 39 more bodies overnight. But officials say they are not giving up hope. "The ship sank in a very short time frame, so there could still be air trapped in the hull," Li Qixiu of the Naval University of Engineering told the state news agency Xinhua.
Another group of relatives staged a protest in Shanghai, where the tour company most passengers had booked through, Xiehe Travel, is based. Videos on social media showed them jostling with police as they gathered in the city's People's Square demanding more information.
Ji Guoxin, whose parents were still missing, said Xiehe Travel had just given them a hotline number and told them to make their own way to Jianli. Another protester told reporters: "We want somebody from the local government to receive us and tell all family members what we should do."
(nt)
